Google Cloud has a new chief operating officer.
Diane Bryant, the former head of Intel’s data center unit, has been hired as COO of Google Cloud, the company announced in a blog post.
Bryant, who is also on the board of United Technologies, recently ran Intel’s Data Center Group, which generated $17 billion in revenue last year.
Google did not elaborate on Bryant’s duties in her new role, but Google Cloud CEO Diane Green touted the hire by calling her “an engineer with tremendous business focus and an outstanding thirty-year career in technology.”
“Diane’s strategic acumen, technical knowledge and client focus will prove invaluable as we accelerate the scale and reach of Google Cloud,” Green wrote.
Bryant took a personal leave of absence from Intel in May that was expected to last six to eight months, but she notified the company last week that she would not be returning and planned to retire as of Dec. 1, according to a regulatory filing. Intel said it will to enter into an agreement with Bryant to restrict the use of “confidential information and on solicitation of Intel employees” and will make a separation payment of $4.5 million to her.
Google is working aggressively to build its cloud business, competing head to head with other tech giants in the sector such as Microsoft, Amazon and Alibaba. But Google still ranks behind all three of those companies in terms of market share, according to Gartner.
